


And a Partridge In a Pear Tree

by deanlovescastielswormstache



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-03 02:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5272832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanlovescastielswormstache/pseuds/deanlovescastielswormstache
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Courfeyrac thinks that they should do something for the holidays. Of course, with the Amis around, things never go exactly as planned but there is always fun to be had when revolution takes a break and creativity runs rampant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And a Partridge In a Pear Tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [estelraca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/estelraca/gifts).



> I hope you like this! I'm not actually Jewish, but I thought the Twelve Days of Christmas would be really long and I love Jewish!R so please enjoy and happy holidays!

On the first day of Chanukah, an idea was proposed at the Amis meeting. It was Courfeyrac’s idea. Then again, even if Courfeyrac didn’t come up with an idea and liked it enough, he would push it and push it until the whole group capitulated, at which point the group could care less whose idea it was, because Courfeyrac finally got his way and peace would be restored for a few hours. The amis had never done anything specific for the winter holidays, mostly because it was kind of difficult to celebrate anything as a large social justice group because it always seemed so ‘capitalistic’ and ‘belonging to a small sector of people that used the holiday as an excuse to shove religion down people’s throats regardless of their past and present human rights violations’ as _some_ people in the group would put it. Or at least, if they had blonde hair and a capacity to get punched in the face by one statement.

 

For some reason this year Courfeyrac thought it would be a good idea to bring up the holidays at the end of a productive Amis meeting, in order to catch everyone in a better mood. “So I’ve been thinking about the holidays, and I don’t know what you guys celebrate, but I thought we could maybe share our traditions with each other and mesh them to form our own tradition, you know? If you guys are comfortable with that anyway, and if you’re here and not home. I’m not going home, so I just thought I’d throw it out there.”

 

Enjolras tilted his head, chewing the corner of his bottom lip, and Combeferre looked a little like a deer in the headlights, but Jehan piped up, “I usually celebrate Christmas, but not really in any religious sense. But I think that would be fun. I was thinking of dedicating some poems to you anyway.”

 

Joly squealed with delight. “ _Poems?_ Bossuet never even writes poems for me! Oh, can we please, Enjolras?”

 

“Why are you asking Enjolras? He isn’t the Mother Hen, he has too much on his plate already,” Grantaire snarked, determinedly not looking at Enjolras thanks to their earlier argument, which oddly enough involved their personal feelings about olives on pizza.

 

Enjolras glanced quizzically at Grantaire, trying to calculate if the argument was over. “Well count this Mother Hen in, if Grantaire doesn’t mind. What exactly were you thinking Courfeyrac?”

 

“I don’t know. Do you guys have any traditions that you do over the holidays?”

 

“I always had a winter sweater competition with my family,” Combeferre offered.

 

There were snickers of laughter throughout the room. “Nerd,” Courfeyrac commented lightly, bumping a blushing Combeferre lightly, a brilliant smile lighting his face.

 

“I like that idea,” Bahorel cut over the laughter, “We could have a little competition and the winner gets to light the Menorah. Since Grantaire is Jewish.”

 

Enjolras looked at Grantaire in surprise. “You are?”

 

“Life is full of surprises, Enjolras. You’ll get used to it. But yes, I am, though I never was super practicing.”

 

“Well we could still do the Menorah, if you want, Grantaire?” Combeferre said, adjusting his glasses.

 

“Why not?” Grantaire shrugged. “If anything, it’s an excuse for us to get together more, eight nights of fun instead of just one. More presents, so I’m down.”

 

“We should put a cost limit on presents though. And do a Secret Santa kind of thing where maybe we get everyone one thing for the last day of Chanukah, but for eight presents, we pick names out of a hat. That way we aren’t being ridiculous with presents and some people get really expensive gifts and others get cheaper ones.” Feuilly piped up.

 

“Yes, we need to cut down the gift disparity. The bane of the holidays and yet another way that the upper class keeps the proletariat under control!” Grantaire exclaimed.

 

“That’s a great idea Feuilly. You should work on a slogan, Grantaire,” Marius chimed in.

 

Perhaps part of the reason that Courfeyrac had brought up celebrations was because it was their first year where they had a house to celebrate the holidays in, as they had all moved in together. After Joly and Bossuet and Musichetta’s flat had somehow both flooded and caught on fire at the same time, which was still a highly debated and sought-after story, they started looking for places because their landlord had gotten tired of cleaning up their (Bossuet’s) messes.

 

Then Jehan mentioned looking for a new place because their neighbors kept avoiding them due to their skull collection and inspired poetic declamations in the wee hours of the morning. Not only that, their landlord was getting tired of candle scorches and the wild jungle of plants that Jehan had collected on the balcony, claiming it made the place look ‘overgrown’ and ‘like a jungle,’ which of course had sparked many Jehan-rants about the beauty of wildness and writing revenge angry poetry that sounded an awful lot like they were breaking up with their landlord.

 

Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac were looking for a place to stay as well, since one of Combeferre’s beloved insects turned their entire building into a ghost town when it reproduced and apparently caused interior damage to the building’s architectural structure that made it unsafe, but how was Combeferre to know that? They didn’t include that in the scientific journals that he had first found them in and to this day Combeferre adamantly maintains that he was without fault. Though he did write several pieces in academic journals in which he used his experience as ‘research.’

 

And well, Bahorel had gotten into a fight with his landlord, and usually having to bring your landlord to the emergency room because you knocked him out when he insulted your Yu-Gi-Oh card collection doesn’t exactly harbor a healthy relationship with your landlord; it was kind of hard for Grantaire and Feuilly to live with that, even though Bahorel seemed perfectly oblivious. And Marius and Cosette just wanted to find a cheaper place, or at least something better than what they were currently living in since they had stable jobs now and could afford a slightly nicer place.

 

So when Jehan brought up the fact that they found a nice spacious house in a good area for cheap that they could all share, it was an immediate uproar. Enjolras called them to attention and they made a pros and cons list which turned more into a debate about whether or not someone should be barefoot in the house and putting your shoes on the couch and the economic benefits of clothes dryers and dishwashers as opposed to the environmental costs, but eventually they all agreed that they wanted to live in the house and a week later, Grantaire was painting ever surface in the house while blasting the Smiths and Jehan had put their plants everywhere and Bahorel had started a vegetable garden and Combeferre and Joly and Grantaire and Jehan got to combine their library which overjoyed them, though Grantaire and Enjolras bickered about how to organize the books. Cosette had put some drawings that her preschool kids had done on the fridge and Courfeyrac had framed photos of all the Amis important moments that he hung everywhere and Bossuet stayed out of the way, for the most part, though that broken vase could hardly be attributed to him. They even adopted a cat, which Grantaire immediately named Chesterton and no one could really argue with that name.

 

So they had a house to celebrate the holidays in. They decided they would get a real tree, to Musichetta and really everyone’s delight, since the house would soon smell like a delicious evergreen forest, a real one, not that Febreeze one that Bahorel used to spray everywhere at this time of year to everyone’s displeasure. Grantaire polished the Menorah and set it on top of the fireplace and it seemed as if had always been there, that it belonged there. Courfeyrac hung up the mistletoe in weird places, as usual, like the closet, and over people’s beds, which he thought was hilarious. Bahorel had a holiday music playlist playing at almost all hours of the day and the fireplace was crackling as they played charades into late hours of the night, sipping on eggnog and munching on Musichetta’s holiday cookies, one candle steadily burning it’s way through heated rounds of charades.

 

 

* * *

 

On the second day of Chanukah, Grantaire and Feuilly were tasked with acquiring aforementioned tree. “Did you know that in Ukraine, some people cover their trees in spider webs for Christmas? It’s a tradition that originates from this story that spiders saw a widow crying on Christmas because she didn’t have enough money to decorate the Christmas tree, so the spiders wove it with webs of silver and gold.” Feuilly’s face was crunched with concentration as they attempted to fit the Christmas tree in through the doorway of their house.

 

“Did you say spider webs?” Jehan’s head poked out of the doorway. There was tinsel in their hair and their nose was red from the cold.

 

Feuilly laughed, and Grantaire would have if he weren’t afraid of the tree falling from his grasp if he didn’t concentrate entirely on holding it. “Yeah, do you want to add it to the list of traditions?”

 

Jehan nodded excitedly, and then paused. “I think we should add skulls too. Because they’re cool. Also then we could add some Day of the Dead stuff in there too.”

 

Grantaire finally gave up, dropping the stump of the tree with a loud thud, narrowly missing his toe. “Jehan, Day of the Dead was two months ago!”

 

Both Feuilly and Jehan glared at Grantaire, albeit for different reasons. “I know that Grantaire, but since we don’t do anything for it, I thought it could be very beautiful. Celebrating the beginning and the end, life and death.”

 

“Someone got creeped out by your skull stuff, didn’t they?” Grantaire smirked, but stopped at the slumped dejection that crossed Jehan’s figure. Feuilly’s glare turned even colder and he finally dropped his end of the tree to go over to Jehan and drape his arm around them in a somewhat awkward attempt at a hug due to the cramped nature of the entryway. Grantaire sighed and joined in. “I’ll convince the others,” he added softly, and was rewarded with Jehan’s brilliant smile and some side-eyeing from Feuilly. It was deserved, he supposed.

 

 

After some cajoling, though not as much as expected, the Amis all squeezed themselves into too few cars and headed to the thrift store in hopes of finding some looked over Halloween decorations; Courfeyrac insisted on blasting Macklemore’s top hit. When they finally got to the checkout hours later, Halloween decorations made up a very small percentage of the things that they actually bought. The rest of the day was spent making the house as spooky as possible, decorating the tree with an assortment of spiderwebs, skulls, and pins from various protests. Courfeyrac somehow acquired a huge rainbow flag that they hung in the entrance hall. You had never seen a house so ready for the holidays.

 

That night when they lit the next candle, the snow had begun to fall, giving the entire evening a cozy holiday feel and a frenzy of ideas for a snow day if enough were to accumulate.

 

* * *

 

On the third day of Chanukah, Courfeyrac woke everyone early for the project of the day – making gingerbread houses. This was Bahorel’s idea, because he had recently been getting into the artistic and culinary aspects of the holiday seasons, including hours spent poring over images and recipes on the internet, much to Feuilly’s exasperation. After much shuffling, groaning, commiserating at the coffee machines ancient pace, and awkward silences after someone walked in on Marius and Cosette having sex, they were all able to move on and start the day’s projects.

 

They all paired off and squabbled over aprons and gingerbread supplies, resulting in a last minute run to the supermarket for more candy. When they got back from the supermarket, it was all business. They paired off quickly and set to work. Joly and Musichetta had a recipe for gingerbread that was specifically for gingerbread houses. While it baked in the oven, all of them pitched in for cleanup because there may have been a kerfuffle or two involving flour and cookie cutters and butter spilled everywhere. Soon though, the house was filled with a mouth-watering warmth and everyone was more than ready to make a house, so much so that Combeferre had to remind everyone that it had to cool before they could do anything.

 

They finally paired off and began their strategy for the house’s design as they waited for it to cool, hoarding candy jealously and speaking in murmured tones. After lunch, they set to work, starting a timer that was set to go off in two hours.

 

It was really no surprise that Feuilly and Bahorel won, seeing as Bahorel was an expert at baking decorations and Feuilly had endless amounts of patience and perseverance. It was a quaint classic gingerbread house; a clear winner even to the biased eyes of the other conestants. Surprisingly, Jehan and Eponine had made a sufficiently spooky gingerbread house that was partially collapsed in a way they claimed a haunted house would be, though it was most likely a mistake. Enjolras and Grantaire’s was respectable, if only because it was overdone with the holiday colors of red and green. Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta could barely make a single wall stand, but they were happy seeing as they got to eat as much candy as their hearts desired. Marius and Cosette had a sweet little cottage as well, but Marius had accidentally dropped it when Cosette had kissed him. They decided to preserve Bahorel and Feuilly’s house on the fireplace and the rest of the gingerbread houses were gone in the matter of a few hours.

 

By the time they lit the candles, not a single person was without a stomachache. Joly gave them an earful about it, but no one regretted it enough that they would have forgone gorging themselves on gingerbread houses, because after all, the holidays only come once a year.

 

 

* * *

 

On the fourth day of Chanukah, they found Courfeyrac and Combeferre making out in a closet. Which Joly thought was the perfect opportunity to make puns about coming out of closets. Nothing else really got done. Unless you count Courfeyrac. Oh, and the candle, _stop laughing Grantaire_!

 

 

* * *

 

The fifth day of Chanukah involved way too much yarn for Enjolras’ taste. Bahorel, who had become a bit of a whiz when it came to holiday traditions, came up with the idea of knitting their own stockings as he had been practicing all year. This idea was mostly met with hesitation until Feuilly added the fact that they could have a stocking race with the stockings at the end of the day and that they could spend the day doing a Harry Potter Marathon. This devolved very quickly into passionate recitations of lines and debates on thematic elements of Harry Potter, as well as who would be which character in Harry Potter.

 

“I always thought I’d make a smashing Peeves,” Grantaire said from his spot on the couch, curled around Enjolras.

 

“You would, oh my goodness. I think that Jehan would be Luna,” added Eponine.

 

“Eponine, I am so flattered! Also, you are hands down a Ginny in my opinion.” Jehan was braiding Bahorel’s hair while Feuilly painted their toenails, their stockings forgotten for the importance of self-care and Bahorel glancing longingly at his stocking every once in a while. 

 

"Combeferre would make the perfect Hermione," Courfeyrac said dreamily before getting elbowed in the stomach by Marius and blushing almost as scarlet as Combeferre, who was fiddling with the sleeve of his sweater, an almost sure sign of how uncomfortable he was, but he muttered a quiet thank you and pecked Courfeyrac on the cheek to the cheers of the entire household. 

 

To absolutely no one's surprise except for perhaps Enjolras, who expected knitting to come naturally to him, their stockings all turned out ridiculously misshapen, with the exception of Bahorel's and Jehan's. Feuilly and Grantaire managed some decent looking ones, but for the most part, the stockings were hardly very distinguishable as such. Feuilly and Bahorel won the stocking race, which wasn't truly a surprise to anyone, since they had the better formed stocking for feet and were both quite athletic, though surprisingly Cosette and Marius came into a close second. Considering how excited they were about their victory, Marius and Cosette got the honor of lighting the candle together from cheers and suggestive comments from Courfeyrac, who had apparently forgotten all the awkwardness of having one's personal life made public from the day before. Courfeyrac broke out the eggnog much to Combeferre's pleasure and everyone went to bed relatively tipsy. 

 

* * *

 

On the sixth day of Chanukah, they finally let Bossuet pick their activity seeing as it seemed harmless. He really just wanted to have a baking day in wacky pajamas, and this idea seemed to catch on pretty quickly. Courfeyrac sported a polar bear onesie, next to Combeferre, who seemed to have one with the Table of Elements on it. Enjolras' was pure red with little French flags on it; he had it custom made. Bossuet and Joly both had dinosaur pajamas and constantly engaged in dinosaur battles for dominance at the most inconvenient times, even breaking several coffee mugs (thankfully the less-loved ones). Bahorel sported a Care Bear onesie while Feuilly sported a Batman onesie. Jehan had a rainbow pajama and Grantaire had somehow managed to get Pepe pajamas, much to everyone's displeasure. Eponine and Musichetta had "goth" pajamas and Marius and Cosette took the cake by wearing His and Hers pajama sets because they are "wacked." 

 

They proceeded to get all their pajamas dirty through baking and Grantaire narrated everything like he was on Cupcake Wars. The cookies did come out delicious and they all decorated the gingerbread men to be each other. They spent the evening sipping tea and consuming copious amounts of cookies after Feuilly had lit the candle. 

 

* * *

 

On the seventh day of Chanukah they all went sledding, deciding to make a snow day out of it since the snow was perfect for making snowmen (and snowballs, though no one mentioned it). Also, they had been inside for far too long and they were all going a little stir crazy from being cooped up together, so the blue skies and crisp air called to their hearts. They collected their miscellaneous and surprisingly large collection of sleds and thermos' of hot cocoa, some of which were enhanced with vodka "to keep them warm,"and trooped out in the snow in varying degrees of winter readiness, which Joly disapproved of. He was of course bundled up to the point where his stride had transformed into a slight waddle.

 

Despite their lack of preparedness for winter survival situations, it was a great idea to get out and the fresh air cut the inside of their lungs. It’s too bad that Bossuet also cut himself. Even if it wasn’t the lungs, they spent most of the rest of the day in the emergency room taking turns doing hot cocoa rounds. And that was the end of that.

 

They let Bossuet light the candle than night under the close supervision of Joly to avoid further incidents. 

 

* * *

 

On the eighth day of Chanukah, they all exchanged gifts. Jehan wrote Bahorel a poem that ‘made his allergies’ act up, and they spent the rest of the evening curled up together on the soft rug in front of the fireplace. Bahorel had knitted Jehan sweaters and other clothing for Jehan’s ‘jungle of plants’ that resulted in several minutes of bro hugging on said rug and lots of cat-calling and clearing of throats.

 

Feuilly got Combeferre a book about space that also had cool posters of nebulas that Combeferre vowed to hang on his ceiling so he could see it first thing in the morning. To which he received an elbow in the side from Courfeyrac, after which he amended his list to put Courfeyrac at the top of said list. Combeferre had gotten Joly a book entitled “The Book of Puns” and he and Joly spent all afternoon making puns, after which Grantaire referred to it as the Book of Pun-ishment, which elicited load groans of horror from the very foundations of the house.

 

Joly had gotten Eponine a nice new leather jacket that she actually smiled when she saw. She vowed to try not to get blood on it so that she could wear it on fancier occasions. She had, in turn, gotten Courfeyrac three new bowties, which he got very gesticulate about and decided to have Combeferre "help" him put all three on at once. Courfeyrac presented Bossuet with different kinds of band aids, including Angry Birds, Spiderman, and Cinderella. He also gave Bossuet a Welcome to Nightvale shirt that was very much appreciated and set off a round of Welcome to Nightvale quotes and even Combeferre and Courfeyrac reenacting the Carlos and Cecil relationship, while Grantaire just yelled at an imaginary Steve Carlsburg about his cadillac. 

 

After that storm died down (after Bossuet tried to join in on the fun and almost ripped his stitches when he tripped over the coffee table which was promptly removed), they got on with the gift giving. Bossuet got Musichetta new cookie cutters for next holiday’s cookies as well as some slightly crumpled poinsettias that Musichetta cooed over until Bossuet was almost as red as the flowers. Musichetta got Feuilly the new album to some Icelandic hipster band, that no one knew the name of, but Feuilly got very emotional over. Lastly, Enjolras got Grantaire a new red beanie and a gift card to his favorite art supply store and Grantaire got Enjolras a “stuffy old Robespierre biography” as he referred to it. Enjolras grinned and reached for his hand and pulled him back on the couch for more snuggling.

They spent the rest of the evening drinking mulled wine and musing over the past holiday and the coming new year and their hearts were full to bursting, as the candles winked out into the cold, dark, night. Needless to say, holidays were celebrated from then on in that revolutionary household. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for readings. Come say hi on [ my personal tumblr](http://deanlovescastielswormstache.tumblr.com) or on my [Les Mis tumblr](http://permets-tu-not-permettez-vous.tumblr.com).


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